Machines for automatically sorting flat articles, such as mail, into one of an array of selected bins or compartments, are known. Typically, such sorting machines have a feeding station, including an intake drive member such as a rubber-covered wheel or belt, sensing and detecting equipment for determining the appropriate output compartment for the article to be sorted, diverting gates or other article directing mechanisms and an array of output compartments or bins for the sorted articles. An example of an advanced sorting machine is the DBSCII sorting device, available from Siemens ElectroCom, L.P., Arlington, Tex.
Conventionally, to feed articles into the sorting machine, an operator manually grabs a bundle of mail to be sorted and manually shakes or jostles the mail to generally align the bottom edges, making a stack, typically horizontal. The operator then places the stack of mail against the feed member of the sorting machine. The feed member then feeds the articles into the sorting machine, one at a time, to be sorted in the sorting machine.
At the output of the sorting machine, the sorted articles are routed to the appropriate receiving compartments or bins where the sorted articles are stacked. The feeding and sorting of articles continues until one or more of the receiving compartments become sufficiently full of a stack of sorted articles or mail. When the receiving compartment is full, an operator manually removes a stack of the sorted articles from the full compartment and places the stack of articles into a box. This removal of stacked articles may be termed "sweeping" of the compartment. The stack of sorted articles placed by the operator into a box may be further reprocessed through the same sorting machine, may be transferred to another sorting machine for additional sorting or may be transported to a delivery person, such as a mail carrier, or may be transmitted for ultimate delivery to the intended location, address or recipient when all desired sorting is completed.
Although automatic sorting machines have greatly speeded and improved prior processes for manual article sorting, manual attention is still required to feed the flat articles or the mail into the sorting machine and also to sweep and retrieve the sorted and stacked articles from the output of the sorting machine. The need for such manual feeding and sweeping is undesirable for ergonomic reasons, because of the bending and reaching required of humans to perform these tasks. Furthermore, the need for such manual handling of mail articles tends to limit the maximum benefits of automation that can be gained from the automatic sorting machines.